Viramune twice a day or every 12 hours

Mar 20, 2001

Doctor, I am kind of confused about the doses of viramune. My doctor and the pharmacist told me twice a day, but I read somewhere take viramune every 12 hours. Viramune has a 25-30 hours half life in the blood as we all know. Due to be so sick and tired keep looking at my watch for the times to take the drugs I was wondering if could treat this medication not as consersavite as I had with crixivan. I know I can't take the drug few hours after the the first doses and I know I that I must take it during the course of the day.
I was wondering if I could really take twice a day like in the morning and at night?
Also sometimes would it be risky to take the medication 14-15 hours after the morning does?
thanks a lot

Response from Dr. Pavia

This is an easy one, in that there is a right anwer. As you stated, the half life of Viramune is 25-30 hours. It is perfectly reasonable to take it twice a day, and I know of no one who feels strict 12 hour dosing is necessary. Ranging from 9 to 15 hour intervals is likely to be completely safe. Just so long as you don't miss doses...

As you may know, a number of studies have suggested that virammune can be take equally well as 400 mg every 24 hours, and it is often prescribed this way. You should know that, unlike videx EC and Sustiva, the FDA has not yet seen enough data to approve viramune as a once a day drug but that may change.

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